Category Archives: Nepal

His Eminence Yongdzin Rinpoche: Cremation of the Holy Physical Remains and Fire Offering Rites

The Sacred vessel containing the Holy Physical Remains of His Eminence Yongdzin Tendzin Namdak Rinpoché

Since the parinirvana of the esteemed and greatly beloved master, His Eminence Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoché, the worldwide Yungdrung Bön community has been observing a 49-day period of veneration, prayers, and offerings to receive blessings and accumulate great spiritual merit. On Friday August 2, 2025 this 49-day period concluded. From August 4th to August 9th, an extensive fire offering rite according to the cycle of the Künrig Le Zhi Gyün Nga‘i Jin Sek will be performed. During this time on August 6th, the actual cremation of the holy physical remains will take place. The Künrig Le Zhi Gyün Nga‘i Jin Sek, is one of the primary texts in the Yungdrung Bön religious tradition used for cremation rites and the continuous fire offerings that take place. For this, a great variety and quantity of offerings are being prepared. Among these offerings are many large and small boards written with mantras and prayers that will be read by the officiating lama, consecrated with blessed substances, and then placed into the fire.

Offerings for the fire offering rites
Offerings for the fire offering rites
A great accumulation of fire offerings

During these rites, the holy physical remains will be cremated in a specially built chorten [Sanskrit: stupa]. After the conclusion of the ritual, once the ash from the offering rites has cooled, it will be carefully collected along with any relics and saved to be placed into a reliquary chorten that will be built to hold the relics along with a variety of other sacred objects and substances. Additionally, many sa tsa will be made that will be filled with some of the cremation ash and distributed to faithful disciples and supporters.

Construction of the cremation chorten at Triten Norbutsé Monastery

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Welcoming and Installing the Sacred Remains of the Spiritual Master

His Holiness the 34th Menri Trizen, His Eminence Menri Pönlop, Khenpo Ronpoche and others escort the sacred Ku dung to be installed at Triten Norbutse Monastery

On the evening of June 20, 2025 with wondrous signs in the environment, the lord of refuge His Eminence Yongdzin Tendzin Namdak Rinpoche passed from his state of tukdam and left his sacred physical remains. On June 21, 2025, accompanied by His Holiness the 34th Menri Trizen, His Eminence Menri Pönlop Rinpoche, Khenpo Tenpe Yungdrung Rinpoche, and other khenpos, geshes, and an ocean of faithful disciples, the sacred remains were escorted to Triten Norbutsé Monastery.

The road was lined with faithful followers, and the path to the monastery was ornamented with auspicious symbols drawn with golden flowers. There were victory banners flowing, sweet-smelling incense, and the sacred sound of drums, cymbals, and chanting filled the air.

The precious remains were installed at the monastery with auspicious signs. The monastic community presented the five offerings and repeatedly made fervent prayers of praise and aspirations. The times for visiting and viewing the sacred remains by the faithful will soon be announced.

A video of the sacred procession can be viewed at this link: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1258612932653054

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Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of His Eminence Menri Yongdzin Lopön Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche

On February 6, 2025 in Kathmandu, Nepal within the new meditation temple at Palden Triten Norbutsé Monastery, the Yungdrung Bön community will gather and rejoice in the 100th birthday of His Eminence Yongdzin Lopön Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche. Once His Eminence has entered the mediation hall and taken his seat upon the grand throne, many mandala offerings of glorious things will be offered and prayers for his long life will be chanted.

“Supplication to the Lord of Refuge, Menri Yongdzin Lopön Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche

How marvelous! Teacher of the three trainings and protector of migrating beings, you are an emanation of the omniscient Nyi Wang who perfects enlightened intention with dynamic energy. Having the total perfection of the abiding nature of sutra and trantra, you hold and protect the teachings through your completely pure enlightened activities. To Yongdzin Mawé Wangpo I supplicate! 

ཨེ་མ་ཧོ༎   བསླབ་གསུམ་བསྟན་པའི་བདག་ཉིད་འགྲོ་བའི་མགོན།། ཀུན་མཁྱེན་ཉི་དབང་རྣམ་རོལ་དགོངས་རྩལ་རྫོགས།། མདོ་སྡེ་སྔགས་ཀྱི་གནས་ལུགས་རྫོགས་པ་ཆེ།། བསྟན་པ་འཛིན་སྐྱོང་འཕྲིན་ལས་རྣམ་པར་དག། ཡོངས་འཛིན་སྨྲ་བའི་དབང་པོར་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས༎ སྐྱབས་རྗེ་སྨན་རིའི་ཁྲི་འཛིན་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་མཆོག་གིས་ཕྱི་   ཟླ་ ༣་ཚེས་༨་ལ་བསྟོད་པའོ།

é ma ho, lap sum ten pé dak nyi dro wé gön, kün khyen nyi wang nam röl gong tsal dzok, do dé ngak kyi né luk dzok pa ché, ten pa dzin kyong trin lé nam par dak, yong dzin ma wé wang por söl wa dep”

Written by the supreme Lord of Refuge, the 33rd Menri Trizen Rinpoche on the 8th lunar day of the 3rd lunar month.

A Bön Song for Welcoming One Hundred Years

You are a Shen whose speech is the great essence of the hundred thousand treasuries of sutra and tantra. Great protector of the teachings of the 84,000 Doors of Bön, during this present time you have greater kindness than a thousand enlightened ones. We rejoice that you have reached the age of one hundred!

The expressions of your realization and your hundreds of acts are solid pillars of the three trainings. Your utterly fulfilling knowledge of the three aspects turns the thousand-spoked wheel of Bön. Unequaled holder of the golden throne, because of a multitude of requests, You subsequently composed thirteen volumes of your collected works.

Embodiment of Drenpa, Master Subduer during the 500 years of decline, you have held, protected, and increased the essence of the Bön teachings during the one hundred years of your long life. Having the completely pure three vows of the hundred-petaled, saffron robe, may your lotus feet remain stable for hundreds of eons!

(Thus, this great celebration marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of the principal teacher of the Leader of Menri, the divine Lord of Refuge, Lopön Mawé Wangpo Tenzin Nadak, the supremely glorious master. As the fortunate Bön community of former students of The Bön Children’s Welfare Center of Topgyal Sarpa at Pal Shenten Menri Ling and others who are continually protected by your wisdom and kindness, offer these auspicious wishes. Mutsuk Marro!)

Newly finished statue of His Eminence Menri Yongdzin Lopön Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche

Offerings to the Lama

How Marvelous!

Within a completely pure and unchanging miraculous realm is the spiritual master, the essence of the Enlightened Ones of the three times. In order for the migrating beings of the six destinies to cross the ocean of cyclic existence, please remain seated upon the jeweled throne, upon faultless cushions of a radiant lotus, sun, and moon within the unsurpassed palace of the immeasurable three places! AH OM HUNG CHI PAR RAYNA TA TSEN RA YO DZA

Prostrations

How marvelous! To the lama who is the embodiment of all of the Victors and spiritual masters, principally by Bön practitioners, but including all sentient beings who are as limitless as the sky; we offer prostrations with our body, prostrating with our arms, legs, and head! We prostrate with our speech, chanting with a joyous and inspired melody! We prostrate with our mind, prostrating with single-pointed motivation and devotion! May the negative actions and defilements of our three doors become purified! AH OM HUNG CHI PAR RAYNA KO PUNG AKSHO TRI TSE GU DÜN HRUN

Admission of Wrongdoing and Purification

In the presence of my principal lama who is chief among the supreme objects of refuge, I admit my actions of wrongdoing and non-virtue that I have committed from the beginning until this very day. I admit corrupting the three vows and defiling the promises that I’ve made. I admit my pretension even though I do not understand the nature of mind. Please bestow complete purification and the supreme attainment! AH OM HUNG CHI PAR RAYNA KO PUNG AKSHO TRI TSE U DUK SHA YA NI SOHA

Mandala Offering

How marvelous! To the great, unmatched lama possessing characteristics, I present unequaled external, internal, and secret offerings. Externally, I offer a variety of nice things of the environment and its inhabitants. Furthermore, I offer my own body and its vitality as an ornament. I present these offerings with non-attachment. 

Internally, I offer the arising of my mental and physical aggregates. I offer my accumulated realization that whatever arises as subject and object is illusory. Furthermore, I present these offerings within the vast space of self-liberation.

Secretly, I offer the natural radiance of my unborn mind, which is unceasing and understands whatever arises as enlightened manifestation and wisdom. Furthermore, I present these offerings within a completely vast and all-pervasive space. AH OM HUNG CHI PAR RAYNA ZUR NAM DÉ SHO HA RA TIM TIM YÉ SOHA

The Five Offerings

How Marvelous! Free from extremes and unchanging is the container of the mind. Free from elaborations, I establish the wick of great self-liberation. I fill the lamp of authentic, completely pervasive great bliss. To the One who has characteristics, I present this butter lamp to look upon with the eye.

This unmoving and naturally clear incense burner is filled with the non-grasping, radiantly clear light of pure incense. The fresh and continuous smoke permeates everywhere. I present this incense to the Protector of beings.

This unfabricated and self-clear water offering bowl is filled with unobstructed, playful self-arising offering water. Having added various ornaments of non-attachment such as nectar and medicine, I present this offering water for the enjoyment of the Dimension of great kindness. 

The primordial Buddha of the conch shell of the mind is filled with manifested experience and realization like an utpal flower. Radiating the wonderful light of spontaneously benefitting others, I present this flower of enlightened activity to the Heart of great kindness. AH OM HUNG NÉ TING SHIM PÖ DANG RA BONG NGÉ NÉ RA ZUR NAM DÉ SHO HA RA TIM TIM SOHA

Praise of the Enlightened State

How marvelous! At the crown of my head, the changeless palace of great bliss, abides the state of Künzang, completely equipoised and free from extremes. I pray to the dimension of the Bön lamas, please hold the migrating beings of the six realms in your compassion and loosen the mind-stream!

At the neck, the space of the palace of Ogmin, are the peaceful and wrathful deities who have the major and minor characteristics. I pray to the dimension of lamas of the Dzok ku, please hold the migrating beings of the six destinies in your compassion and loosen our mind-stream!

At the center of the heart, is the realm of the manifested subduer of migrating beings, the One who teaches whatever is needed and performs a variety of enlightened activity. I pray to the dimension of manifested Lamas, please hold the migrating beings of the six destinies in your compassion and loosen our mind-stream!

To the collective of all the victorious Lamas who has the endowments of leisure and fortune, who teaches the entire collection of scripture with completely pure speech, who has the extensive wisdom of knowledge and kindness, and a mind free from elaboration, who protects migrating beings like their own children with their exalted qualities that come forth, who has spontaneous enlightened activity as limitless as the sky; I pray to the unrivalled Lama, please hold the migrating beings of the six destinies in your compassion and loosen our mind-stream!

I pray to the One who is unrivaled and who has perfected the Three Bodies, please hold the migrating beings of the six destinies in your compassion and loosen our mind-stream! I pray to the One whose speech is the ornament of the world, please hold the migrating beings of the six destinies in your compassion and loosen our mind-stream! I pray to the One who blazes like the incomparable udum flower, please hold the migrating beings of the six destinies in your compassion and loosen our mind-stream! I pray to the One who is free of defilements and has the two kinds of knowledge, please hold the migrating beings of the six destinies in your compassion and loosen our mind-stream!

Receiving the Accomplishments

You, my Lama, who has brought cyclic existence and nirvana under your power, I, and your other followers, pray; please bestow benefits that are as limitless as the sky to migrating beings!  Please grant our wishes to be continuously without separation from your presence! Continuously hold us with your unequalled compassion, we pray!

Aspiration Prayer

Until I obtain complete enlightenment, not born in a negative place, may I obtain a body of renunciation with the advantages of the leisures and fortunes. Having practiced the three trainings and loosened the mind stream,  and having traveled the paths and the grounds, from the state of complete buddhahood, may I accomplish benefit that is equal to the vastness of the sky!

༄༅། །ཨེ་མ་ཧོ།      རྣམ་དག་འགྱུར་མེད་སྤྲུལ་པའི་ཞིང་ཁམས་ནས། དུས་གསུམ་སངས་རྒྱས་ངོ་བོ་བླ་མ་རྗེ། འགྲོ་དྲུག་འཁོར་བའི་ཆུ་ལས་བསྒྲལ་བའི་ཕིར།       བླ་མེད་ཕོ་བྲང་གཞལ་ཡས་གནས་གསུམ་དུ།   སྐྱོན་བྲལ་པདྨ་གསལ་འཚེར་ཉི་ཟླའི་གདན།  གཅན་ལྔ་རིན་ཆེན་ཁྲི་ལ་བཞུགས་སུ་གསོལ།།    ཨ་ཨཱོྃ་ཧཱུྃ༔   ཅི་པར་རདྣ་ཐ་ཚན་ར་ཡོ་ཛ༔

ཕྱག་ནི།  

ཨེ་མ་ཧོ།   རྒྱལ་བ་ཀུན་འདུས་དཔོན་གསས་བླ་མ་ལ།   སྒྲུབ་གཤེན་གཙོར་བྱས་མཁའ་མཉམ་སེམས་ཅན་གྱིས། ལུས་ཕྱག་ཡན་ལག་ལྔ་ལྡན་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།།     ངག་ཕྱག་སྤྲོ་དགའི་དབྱངས་ཀྱིས་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།།      ཡིད་ཕྱག་རྩེ་གཅིག་མོས་འདུན་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།།          སྒོ་གསུམ་ལས་ངན་སྡིག་སྒྲིབ་བྱང་གྱུར་ཅིག ཨ་ཨཱོྃ་ཧཱུྃ༔     ཅི་པར་རདྣ་རྐོ་ཕུང་ཨཀྴོ་ཁྲི་ཙེ་གུ་དུན་ཧྲུན།   

བཤགས་པ།               

ཨེ་མ་ཧོ།   ཡུལ་མཆོག་གཙོ་བོ་བླ་མའི་སྤྱན་སྔར་རུ།     བདག་ནི་ཐོག་མར་འཁྲུལ་ནས་ད་ལྟའི་བར། སྡིག་བཅུ་ལས་སོགས་མི་དགེ་གྱུར་ཚད་བཤགས།  སྡོམ་གསུམ་འགལ་སྲིད་ཁས་བླང་ཉམས་པ་བཤགས། སེམས་ཉིད་མ་རྟོགས་གཟུ་ལུམ་གྱུར་ཚད་བཤགས།    བྱང་དག་ཚངས་པ་མཆོག་གི་དངོས་གྲུབ་སྩོལ།། ཨ་ཨཱོྃ་ཧཱུྃ༔      ཅི་པར་རདྣ་རྐོ་ཕུང་ཨཀྴོ་ཁྲི་ཙེ་ཨུ་དུག་གཤའ་ཡ་ནི་སྭཱཧཱ།

མནྡལ་ནི།

ཨེ་མ་ཧོ།  མཚན་ལྡན་བླ་མ་མཉམ་མེད་ཆེན་པ་ལ།     བླ་མེད་མཆོད་པ་ཕྱི་ནང་གསང་གསུམ་འབུལ། ཕྱི་རུ་སྣོད་བཅུད་འདོད་ཡོན་ཇི་སྙེད་པ།   དེ་ཡང་རང་གི་ལུས་སྲོག་རྒྱན་ལ་སོགས།     དེ་ཡང་ཆགས་མེད་བློ་ཡིས་ལིང་གིས་འབུལ།      ནང་དུ་རང་གི་འབྱུང་དུག་ཕུང་པོ་ལ།     རྟོགས་ཚོགས་གཟུང་འཛིན་འཁྲུལ་པ་ཅི་ཤར་ཡང་།      དེ་ཡང་རང་གྲོལ་ཀློང་དུ་ཁྲོལ་གྱིས་འབུལ།    སྐྱེ་མེད་སྙིང་པོ་སེམས་ཀྱི་རང་མདངས་ལ།  འགག་མེད་སྐུ་དང་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཅི་ཤར་ཡང་།   དེ་ཡང་ཁྱབ་བདལ་ཀློང་དུ་ཕྱམ་གྱིས་འབུལ།།  ཨ་ཨཱོྃ་ཧཱུྃ༔      ཅི་པར་རདྣ་ཟུར་ནམ་དེ་ཤོ་ཧ་ར་ཐིམ་ཐིམ་ཡེ་སྭཱཧཱ།

རྣམ་ལྔ་ནི།         

ཨེ་མ་ཧོ།  མཐའ་བྲལ་འགྱུར་མེད་སེམས་ཀྱི་རྐོང་བུ་རུ།    སྤྲོས་བྲལ་རང་གྲོལ་ཆེན་པོའི་སྡོང་བུ་བཙུགས། ཁྱབ་བདལ་བདེ་ཆེན་གཉུག་མའི་སྒྲོན་མེ་བལྟམས།     མཚན་ལྡན་སྤྱན་ལ་ལྟ་བའི་ཞུག་མར་འབུལ།། གཡོ་མེད་རང་གསལ་ཆེན་པོའི་སྤོས་ཕོར་དུ།      འཛིན་མེད་རང་མདངས་འོད་གསལ་སྤོས་དཀར་བླུགས། སོ་མ་རང་ལྷུག་རྒྱུན་གྱི་དུད་པ་འཐུལ།         འགྲོ་མགོན་ཤང་ལ་བསྣོམ་པའི་སྤོས་མཆོད་འབུལ།།        མ་བཅོས་རང་གསལ་ལྷུག་པའི་ཏིང་ཕོར་དུ།     མ་འགག་རོལ་པ་རང་ཤར་ཡོན་ཆབབ་བླུགས།     སྣ་ཚོགས་རྒྱན་ཤར་ཆགས་མེད་རྩི་སྣམ་བཏབས།   དྲིན་ཆེན་སྐུ་ལ་སྤྱོད་པའི་ཡོན་ཆབ་འབུལ།། ཡེ་ནས་རང་སེམས་སངས་རྒྱས་དུང་ཕོར་དུ།           ཉམས་རྟོགས་མངོན་གྱུར་ཨུ་དཔལ་མེ་ཏོག་བླུགས། ལྷུན་གྲུབ་གཞན་ཕན་ལེགས་པའི་འོད་ཟེར་འཕྲོ།  དྲི་ཆེན་ཐུགས་ལ་འཕྲིན་ལས་མེ་ཏོག་འབུལ།།    ཨཱ་ཨཱོ་ཧཱུྃ༔    ནེ་ཏིང་ཤིམ་ཕོད་དང་ར་བོང་ངེ་ནེ་ར་ཟུར་ནམ་དེ་ཤོ་ཧ་ར་ཐིམ་ཐིམ་སྭཱཧཱ།

སྐུ་བསྟོད་ནི།                

ཨེ་མ་ཧོ།   སྤྱི་གཙུག་འགྱུར་མེད་བདེ་བའི་ཕོ་བྲང་དུ།   ཀུན་སྙོམས་མཐའ་བྲལ་ཀུན་བཟང་ངང་ལ་བཞུགས། བླ་མ་བོན་གྱི་སྐུ་ལ་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས།     འགྲོ་དྲུག་ཐུགས་རྗེས་བཟུང་ལ་བདག་རྒྱུད་ཁྲོལ།། མགྲིན་པ་འོག་མིན་དབྱིངས་ཀྱི་ཕོ་བྲང་ན།    ཞི་ཁྲོའི་སྐུ་ལ་མཚན་དང་དཔེ་བྱད་ལྡན།   བླ་མ་རྫོགས་པའི་སྐུ་ལ་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས།      འགྲོ་དྲུག་ཐུགས་རྗེས་བཟུང་ལ་བདག་རྒྱུད་ཁྲོལ།།      ཐུགས་ཀ་འགྲོ་འདུལ་སྤྲུལ་པའི་ཞིང་ཁམས་སུ།  གང་མོས་སྐུར་སྟོན་སྣ་ཚོགས་འཕྲིན་ལས་མཁན།   བླ་མ་སྤྲུལ་པའི་སྐུ་ལ་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས།        འགྲོ་དྲུག་ཐུགས་རྗེས་བཟུང་ལ་བདག་རྒྱུད་ཁྲོལ།།    དལ་འབྱོར་སྐུ་ལ་རྒྱལ་བ་མ་ལུས་འདུས།        ཚངས་པའི་གསུང་གི་བཀའ་རྒྱུད་མཐའ་དག་སྟོན།        སྤྲོས་བྲལ་ཐུགས་ལ་མཁྱེན་བརྩེའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་རྒྱས།       ལེགས་འབྱུང་ཡོན་ཏན་འགྲོ་ལ་བུ་བཞིན་སྐྱོབས། རྩལ་མེད་ལྷུན་གྲུབ་ནམ་མཁའི་མཐའ་དང་བྲལ།      བླ་མ་འགྲན་ཟླ་བྲལ་ལ་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས།   འགྲོ་དྲུག་ཐུགས་རྗེས་འཟུང་ལ་བདག་རྒྱུད་ཁྲོལ།།         མཉམ་མེད་སྐུ་གསུམ་རྫོགས་ལ་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས།     འགྲོ་དྲུག་ཐུགས་རྗེས་འཟུང་ལ་བདག་རྒྱུད་ཁྲོལ།། སྨྲ་བའི་འཛམ་གླིང་རྒྱན་ལ་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས།    འགྲོ་དྲུག་ཐུགས་རྗེས་བཟུང་ལ་བདག་རྒྱུད་ཁྲོལ།།     མཚུངས་མེད་ཨུ་དུམ་འབར་ལ་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས།       འགྲོ་དྲུག་ཐུགས་རྗེས་བཟུང་ལ་བདག་རྒྱུད་ཁྲོལ།། སྒྲིབ་མེད་མཁྱེན་གཉིས་ལྡང་ལ་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས།     འགྲོ་དྲུག་ཐུགས་རྗེས་བཟུང་ལ་བདག་རྒྱུད་ཁྲོལ།།

དངོས་གྲུབ་ཞུ་བ་ནི།         

བླ་མ་ཁྱེད་ནི་འཁོར་འདས་རང་དབང་བསྒྱུར།       བདག་སོགས་རྗེས་འབྲང་གསོལ་འདེབས་བུ་རྣམས་ལ། ནམ་མཁའི་མཐའ་དང་བྲལ་བའི་འགྲོ་དོན་སྩོལ།།    འབྲལ་མེད་རྒྱུན་དུ་འགྲོགས་པའི་སྨོན་ལམ་སྩོལ།། མཉམ་མེད་ཐུགས་རྗེས་རྒྱུན་དུ་བཟུང་དུ་གསོལ།།

སྨོན་ལམ་ནི།       

ཇི་སྲིད་རྫོགས་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་མ་ཐོབ་བར།     དེ་སྲིད་གནས་ངན་ལུས་སྤང་དལ་འབྱོར་ཐོབ། བསླབ་གསུམ་རྒྱུད་ཁྲོལ་ས་ལམ་དུས་གཅིག་བསྒྲོད།   རྫོགས་སངས་རྒྱས་ནས་མཁའ་མཉམ་དོན་བྱེད་ཤོག

Translations from the Tibetan by Raven Cypress Wood ©All Rights Reserved. No content, in part or in whole, is allowed to be used without direct permission from the author.

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Anniversary of the Parinirvana of Barlé Lama Tsukphü Gyaltsen Rinpoche 

Left: Barlé Rinpoche Right: Barlé Rinpoche with Khenpo Nyima Künchap Rinpoche

Barlé Lama Tsukphü Gyaltsen Rinpoche was the senior lama of Barlé Gompa, formally known as Seteng Yungdrung Shuktsal Ling, located in the village of Barlé in Dolpo, Nepal. On the 27th lunar day of the 4th Tibetan month in the Western year 2000, his outward breath stopped. His body remained in the five-fold meditation posture for three full days. In 2023, this lunar date coincides with June 15th. Some of his ring sel, or precious relics, are now in the village of Ti Chu Rong in the area of Barlé village. Each summer, residents have an opportunity to go and offer their respect and receive blessings from these ring sel.

Barlé Rinpoche was born in 1934 in the district of Barlé and unusual signs appeared at the time of his birth. From the age of five, he was given thorough instruction and training in Tibetan reading, writing, and Yungdrung Bön ritual practices. Although most Barlé lamas are ngakpas, or householder lamas, Barlé Rinpoche did not want to pursue this kind of lifestyle. Instead, at the age of eighteen he received monk’s vows. He traveled to Samling Monastery and stayed there for three years. Later, he received teachings and initiations from His Eminence Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche as well as Sangye Tenzin Rinpoche.

Upon his return to Barlé village, he immediately began looking for an isolated spot to go into retreat. He found an auspicious place about a thirty-minute walk from Barlé Gompa near a rock formation that naturally resembled a chorten. Here, he constructed Drak Gön Hermitage, Stone Temple Hermitage. From 1970 until 2000, he remained in retreat at this hermitage while also working for the benefit of the local residents. He was a skilled calligrapher and wrote many hundreds of pages of sacred text by hand. At the end of his life, he gave many of these texts, to Murig Khenpo Nyima Künchap Rinpoche who was both his relative and a close student from a young age.

The cave hermitage of Barle Rinpoche. Photo credit: Khenpo Nyima Kunchap Rinpoche

Murig Khenpo Nyima Künchap Rinpoche was also born in the village of Barlé. After the parinirvana of Barlé Rinpoche, Khenpo Künchap recognized his reincarnation in the village of Barlé due to the young boy naturally showing the signs of being familiar with the life and private details of his previous incarnation. Given the name Tséwang Rikdzin, he is currently at Menri Monastery in India. Khenpo Nyima Künchap Rinpoche has taken personal responsibility for his well being and education.

Left: Murig Khenpo Künchap Center: H.E. Menri Ponlop Yangtön Thrinley Nyima Rinpoche Right: Barlé Tulku Tsewang Rikdzin in 2022 at Barlé Gompa

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Ritual for Communal Harmony and Prosperity


Murig Geshe Nyima Kunchap Rinpoche leads a Sherap Jamma ritual for the Yungdrung Bon community in the Dolpo capital of Dunai, Nepal. Photo credit: Unknown.

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